Wireless spread spectrum ground link-based aircraft data communication system with variable data rate
First Claim
1. A system for exchanging information to and from an aircraft comprising:
- a ground data link unit that obtains data during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising;
a) a data store operative to accumulate and store data files that have been uploaded to the aircraft and flight performance data related to the flight performance of the aircraft in flight;
b) a spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said data store that is operative at a first higher data rate when the aircraft is on the ground and a second substantially lower, data rate when the aircraft is airborne in close proximity to the airport to increase effective communication range, wherein said spread spectrum transceiver further comprises a transmitter for downloading said data files that have been uploaded to the aircraft and flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said data store over a spread spectrum communication signal, and a receiver for uploading data over a second spread spectrum communication signal; and
an airport based spread spectrum transceiver that is operative to transmit and receive data to and from said aircraft ground data link unit along respective first and second spread spectrum communication signals at a first data rate when the aircraft is on the ground and a second data rate when the aircraft is airborne in proximity to the airport.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method of the present invention exchanges information to and from an aircraft and includes a ground data link unit and a data store, which accumulates and stores data files that have been uploaded to the aircraft, and flight performance data related to flight performance of the aircraft in flight. A spread spectrum transceiver of the ground data link unit is operative at a first higher data rate when the aircraft is on the ground, and a second substantially lower data rate when the aircraft is airborne in close proximity to the airport and downloads the flight performance data and uploads other data to and from an airport base spread spectrum transceiver.
198 Citations
58 Claims
-
1. A system for exchanging information to and from an aircraft comprising:
-
a ground data link unit that obtains data during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising; a) a data store operative to accumulate and store data files that have been uploaded to the aircraft and flight performance data related to the flight performance of the aircraft in flight; b) a spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said data store that is operative at a first higher data rate when the aircraft is on the ground and a second substantially lower, data rate when the aircraft is airborne in close proximity to the airport to increase effective communication range, wherein said spread spectrum transceiver further comprises a transmitter for downloading said data files that have been uploaded to the aircraft and flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said data store over a spread spectrum communication signal, and a receiver for uploading data over a second spread spectrum communication signal; and an airport based spread spectrum transceiver that is operative to transmit and receive data to and from said aircraft ground data link unit along respective first and second spread spectrum communication signals at a first data rate when the aircraft is on the ground and a second data rate when the aircraft is airborne in proximity to the airport. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A system for providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising:
-
a ground data link unit that obtains flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising; a) a data store operative to accumulate and store flight performance data relating to the performance of the aircraft during flight of the aircraft, and b) a spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative after the aircraft completes its flight and lands at an airport to download said flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said data store during flight over a spread spectrum communication signal at a first, higher data rate, and wherein said spread spectrum transceiver is operative to download flight performance data at a second, substantially lower data rate when the aircraft is in flight and in close proximity to the airport; and an airport based spread spectrum receiver that receives the spread spectrum communication signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
-
-
35. A method for exchanging information to and from an aircraft comprising the steps of:
-
collecting data within a ground data link unit on the flight performance of the aircraft during flight of the aircraft and data files that have been uploaded; accumulating and storing within a data store the flight performance data and buffering data files that have been uploaded during flight of the aircraft; downloading to an airport based spread spectrum transceiver the flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored during flight and buffered data files over a spread spectrum communication signal at a first higher data rate when the aircraft is on the ground, and a second, substantially lower data rate when the aircraft is airborne in close proximity to the airport; demodulating the received spread spectrum communication signal to obtain the flight performance data; uploading data files from the airport based spread spectrum transceiver along a second spread spectrum communication signal to a spread spectrum transceiver of the ground data link at the first higher data rate when the aircraft is on the ground and at a second, substantially lower data rate when the aircraft is airborne in close proximity to the airport; and demodulating the received spread spectrum communication signal within the spread spectrum transceiver of the ground data link unit. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
-
-
52. A ground data link unit that obtains flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising:
-
a data store operative to accumulate and store data files that have been uploaded to the aircraft and flight performance data related to the flight performance of the aircraft in flight; and a spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said data store that is operative at a first higher data rate when the aircraft is on the ground and a second substantially lower, data rate when the aircraft is airborne in close proximity to the airport to increase effective communication range, wherein said spread spectrum transceiver further comprises a transmitter for downloading said flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said data store over a spread spectrum communication signal, and a receiver for uploading data over a second spread spectrum communication signal. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
-
Specification